Blog #3

Megan Holden

Dr. Ellis

Understanding Lit

Oct 11, 2017

Blog 3

In Edgar Allen Poe’s scary short story “The Cask of Amontillado” a vengeful Montresor imprisons his friend Fortunato within a wall for insulting him. Montresor is a cunning and manipulative man who exacts justice on Fortunato as he sees fit, but after he’s sealed the wall he cries out Fortunato’s name, but Forutnato doesn’t respond. Montresor then admits he does feel guilty for what he’s done to his friend, and as Montresor writes the story 50 years later in such extreme detail, the murder must always be on his mind. The moral of the story is that exacting revenge never brings one closure or happiness, but instead it will haunt you.

In the poem “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke, the speaker is a little boy who is dancing about the kitchen with his heavily intoxicated father, and while the scene appears sweet on the surface, the poem uses ambiguous language to show the violence underlying the father’s actions. The father and his son spin around in a “romp” and they’re knocking down pots and pans from the shelf. The boy’s mother looks on and she can’t “unfrown” her face, as she watches her drunken husband toss her small son around. It ends with the boy clinging to his father as he’s whisked away to bed, and we see that the boy still loves his father unconditionally despite his alcoholism. This is a really dynamic and honest poem, and its portrayal of a child’s unconditional love and admiration for his father is really powerful.

In the poem “Cincinnati” by Mitsuye Yamada, the speaker, Yamada, talks about the harsh and racist treatment Japanese-Americans endured after WW2. After moving to a new city where feels she can have a fresh start, she’s still a Japanese woman and even with a fresh start she’ll always be stereotyped but strangers. They don’t know her on a personal level, but they have assumptions about her based on her race that Yamada cannot escape. The line “Everyone knew me” is significant because she knows that people won’t look past the stereotype and will continue to reject her from society just because of her race, and she feels trapped by it.

This weekend I had the pleasure of attending the Fall’s Festival with my dad and younger brother, Matthew. I was excited to show them all around Fell’s Point, and enjoy a perfect Saturday outside by the water. I made them get this amazing tofu bao and my dad made my brother and I each try sucking down raw oysters for the first time. It was a slimy and salty moment, which I will never forget. While the festival was a lot of fun, at one point a very drunk man tripped over a homeless man and made him drop his piece of pizza, which he was eating. Instead of apologizing to the homeless man, the drunken guy made a sheepish face and wandered away back into the crowd. My brother and I stood there looking appalled, but my dad and two others ladies went and talked to the man asking if he was all right and each gave him a few more bucks so that he could get more food. I was really touched by this moment, but helping a homeless person shouldn’t be some courageous and amazing act, it should be normal. Homeless people are often dehumanized and seen as degenerates in society, and people either treat them with no respect or they don’t even acknowledge their existence. The stereotype for homeless people in America creates feelings of apathy and animosity towards these people, when they’re the ones who need our help and kindness the most. They often are trapped in being homeless, and it’s very hard to get out. It made me more aware of how I treat others and what my actions mean to those around me.